Fantasy Aviva Premiership Season 4 Homepage

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Fantasy Aviva Premiership Current League Table

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Teams

Bath RFC	InTheFastLane
Exeter Chiefs	Driver - RIP 606
Gloucester	Anonmattyt
Harlequins	Steven_Sharks
Leicester Tigers	LukeLovesLuka
London Irish	stnick88
London Wasps	Arry
Newcastle Falcons	Sgt_Pooly
Northampton Saints	Dammit_Chris
Sale Sharks	SirJohnnyEnglish
Saracens	Ozzy3213
Worcester Warriors	prop_lyd

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Waiting List
1. pullthestrings
2. Bathite

whats he like matt?

will definitely be behind paice.

dammit_chris wrote:Im worried as you have Gopperth whose kicking can win you games on its own - Robinson's boot is costing us games we should win - should have beaten Exeter last week by 9 points easy.

Steven - Wasps are playing some good stuff at the moment, its purely our ability not to convert our penalties and fluffing chances - we were more threatening than Sarries the week before and should have won, was the same against Exeter.

Reckon we will get a losing BP and be within 5 points

From what I saw on the extended highlights of Wasps v Chiefs, some really poor decision making at key moments in the game cost Wasps heavily. The issue for Wasps is this. The players who made those decisions are not suddenly going to become intelligent decision makers overnight, and nor is Robinson going to becoem an 85% goal kicker, so the improvements are going to have to come elsewhere. Looking at an 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 of Vunipola, Simpson, Robinson, Waldouck and Daly, Wasps have some issues. 8, 9 and 10 lack a bit of nous, and 12 and 13 lack grunt to get over the gainline. I can see Sale being too strong for Wasps tomorrow night, and suspect that they will be heading back to Wycombe with 0 match points.

(That said nick is probably right that they will somehow turn us over the following week as we are normally shoite when we go to Adams Park and are in real poor form right now as well.)

To be honest Pete , defense wise we've come on leaps and bounds Fitzy made a shed load of hits in defense on Saturday because we put a lot of pressure on you guys in the midfield to limit the width. Mike Ford will keep us up.

Gary Gold has told Kurdi he wants to bring in a new LH , HK , SR , 7 , 9 , 10 , 12 and 13 and Kurdi has told him he'll give him the cash. We're meant to be talking to some players in the J-League. I'v heard a few names touted such as Peter Grant , Isacc Ross and Jerry Collins but i can't see any of them besides Grant being likely.

Scott Lawson is a beast in the loose , just hit and miss at the set piece - type of player you'd expect to play for Irish.

Wasps might be playing well but we are in as gooder habit of winning games as we have been since PSA's days and Wasps just aren't in that habit at all. We have Macleod kicking everything off the tee so you just can't give away penalties and players who are starting to put some form together. I hope our forwards can give you some trouble tomorrow and stop you getting the ball wide. Defensively we are solid in the backs but our Islanders in the midfield can get a tad excited and push in looking for the big hit and leave gaps outwide.

Myall been brought in specifically to ruin the Wasps lineout as he did at Adams park. Gaskell back at 6 though because of this

Lawson a decent signing for Irish. I like him but I think there are other positions that needed strengthening before hand. Not expecting Paice to leave are you Pete/Nick?

No Paice is under contract. Buckland is re-signing too, its Blaney that is off.
so Lawson will be 2nd fiddle I expect. Gives us 3 good hookers.

your not wrong steve, we have a lot more important positions to strengthen, 3,8,9,10,12,15!

Paice is still contracted. Buckalnd and Blaney's contracts are up but I think Buck is expected to re-sign. Blaney is gash so won't be offered a new one.

stnick beat me to it.

We put Exeter under all sorts of problems last week, had their scrum going backwards all over the park, so am confident there, espc with Launchbury back - hes a very good player for us.

Our trouble is we dont have a centre who can run through someone - Daly is playing well and should really be kicking instead of Robinson.

Still not sure about Dae Young as manager.

Forgot to add the biggest difference with Sale this year is there away form. LBP's at Leicester, Saints, Quins and Irish are very rare for Sale as well as wins at Bath and Wasps.

Can see newcastle (if they stay up) being like Sale this season. Generally hard to beat but still slipping up on silly occasions.

Scrum might be interesting tomorrow. Sheridan has been doing good things for us and Cobilas is a good tighthead so I am more confident than usual.

Rodney So'oialo is being touted by us but they're not sure whether they'll offer him after he's been dropped by his club side in Japan

So'oialo is a has been.

wasps scrum has been going well of late. not many teams win at sale on a friday night and dont expect wasps to tomorrow. love it if they do though.

i don't expect us to either...

is it next season the marquee signings are allowed that don't count against salary cap?

sounds like Jonathan Davies will sign for Saints, but am sure they, along with Tigers, Sarries, Sale and Bath will all sign a big name.

We need to beat Wasps, Hopefully beat either Exeter or Newcastle away and then see how we do against Quins, Saracens and Bath at home!

we have to win our next 2 games.
a depleted saints team at home is beatable, and wasps away is winnable.
but our current form is poor and i wouldnt be suprised to lose both!

Nick if you stop Wasps midfield then you stop us scoring tries. Our pack is getting us some good ball and we always have the upper hand on the opposition, but we can't get the wins, losing by 3-4 points each game.

I am hoping we get some good weather now until the end of the season as we can most certainly score a lot of tries, just a shame we've lost Wade and Varndell - Bell was also a big loss in the midfield, he was the only guy we had who crashed over a gainline for us.

I'd be impressed if Wasps got through Tuitoupu and Leota as there are solid but can occasionally be drawn looking for big hits.

Outside will be interesting. Brady should do well against Prydie and Wallace.

Predictions for Super 15 title gents??

Reds or Bulls for me.

Bulls in a bit of transition this year. I fancy the Blues as an outside(ish) bet.

I nearly put Blues, but undecided.

I think the Bulls will do well myself. I actually meant to put the Stormers as the side but got mixed up. They should so alright.

I think the Sharks will be the strongest South African side, with the Bulls, Stormers and Lions competing for second spot.

Australia will be between the Reds and Waratahs, with the Rebels just behind and the Brumbies and Western Force a long way back.

New Zealand will be between the Blues and Crusaders, with the Chiefs getting close, and the Hurricanes will be bottom by a stretch.

I imagine it been quite close this year, Waratah's as an outside bet.

Stormers outside bet. Bulls quite depleted in second some aspects. Cheetahs will surprise a few. Bring it on

Will there be any tackling in S15 this year?

Probably none Chris. Lots Of the nz games are dross yet when they get to international rugby they tackle like demons.

Focus is more on attack and conditions dictate they attack.

Look at our league it's attack until November and then attrition until march and then fizzing around.

Better individual skills in super 15 but no relegation means focus of games different and uninhibited

Nice weather definitely helps the game - think it improves their fitness levels too when they are running all over the place.

Nigel Wray from Sarries has started pushing for a mid-season break, with a possible view of moving rugby towards the summer and tying in the s15 season - not sure whether that is possible though.

Early rounds of super 15 interesting as sides don't play there best sides. Expect to see lots of
Players sit it out and come back in eventually. Especially older players. Interesting how
They condition them
Over there. Imagine lots of wc players will sit out and players who took knocks pre season.
They don't play unless 100% bit
Like our footballers. In ap people play all beaten up.

Watch Sam cane who Chris signed top 7 and for me
Next nz7. Also interested to see
Tyler bendenhall or
Whatever he is called who
Chris signed. He is starting. Carter, mccaw and juan smith etc all expected to play round 4-6. That when super rugby becomes interesting. Sa look weak this year particularly bulls pack. Stormers and sharks will be hard at home and maybe shock contenders habana at 13.

Tahs,crusaders and blues must be faves anyone seen betting odds??

See lawson signed for Irish. Your scrum will be even less powered. Worst scrummaging hooker I have seen. Great lineout and loose play. Great impact sub and a real competitor

Just seen lawson conversation been busy and not on much. Off to twickers Saturday so not on over weekend.
C'mon England

How are Tahs favourites. There front 5 is pretty dire

Not really a clear gave hence why I said 3 teams pretty open for me.

TPN, Benn Robinson, Dean Mumm, Vickerman(injured)

4 Aus Ints out of 5 is hardly dire

lawson wont start much matt, like you said be more of an impact sub

Bleyendaal has been playing some good stuff pre-season from the sounds of it, very promising I think - have been wanting to give him a game, but not sure how many people have seen him. Was great at the u20 WC last year.

Really looking forward to seeing how well Gill does for the Reds, he;s on the bench this week, but think he will be first choice in a few months - hopefully Gill or Cane will come good as definitely need a new no7!

Robinson back is massive for them. Never sure whether he is good or not sometimes kills people other times obliterated.

Can't imagine lawson leaving for reserve
Place. Great impact though

Think Robinson will take some getting up to speed, good prop though.

From what I've read about Bleyendaal is that the Saders fans are pooping themselves because he's been crap in pre-season.

I'll be holding judgment till I see him in full S15 matches, he was pretty shoddy in the ITM but the quality in that is very up and down.

The only player I really rate in the NSW front 5 is the one you didn't mention Pooly. I reckon Kepu is a great player at 3. Think the rest are vastly overrated except for Vickerman but he seems to struggle to play for extended periods.

Forgot about Kepu. Big fan of TPN and Robinson(when fit). Mumm wasn't on fire last season but is a good lock on form.

Dire was harsh Steve lol

Tbh I completely forgot they had Robinson when i said it. I thought he was a Brumbie along with Alexander. Not a huge fan of TPN, might just have seen the wrong games.

Tahs need Barnes playing most games to do well. Pretorious could be a good signing for them as they haven't really got much at 10 I don't think.

If all fit they have a serious backline:

9. Pretorious
10. Barnes
11. Mitchell
12. Carter??
13. Horne
14. Turner
15. AAC

Backrow of:

6. Elsom
7. ?
8. Palu

Not too shabby at all. Mitchell out for a few months, Turner out for the season though.

Barnes not gonna be at 10 I wouldn't have thought.

Could really do with Sadie, Vermaak, Murphy, Hooper, Morahan, Hynes (when fit) and Donnelly having big seasons. Would make a huge difference to my squad.

lawson wont be ahead of paice matt.

More signings for Falcons....James Goode & Adam Balding

Earth shattering signings there. Balding is gash

I know, we're really going for it?!?!

Goode could be handy as our lineout has looked dire, more on Vickers shoulders really but a decent lineout lock would give him a good target. Unsure what Balding brings to us.

Will Jamie Noon be coming back soon too?

Will be really tight come the end of the season.

I have heard gary armstrong is coming out of retirement

Bring it on! Noon was quality, very underated centre.

To be fair we could have a backline of Barnes, Smith, JOC, Dagg, Bowe and we still wouldn't score try's as Gopperth doesn't pass the ball.

Anyone watch the game this morning? How did Bleyendaal get on?